Prologue: Blast from the Past
by Calliecature
Summary: "You're not from Toontown?" Jessica asked, surprised. Roger shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Not originally, but it doesn't really matter," he replied and said no more. Jessica stared at him. Usually, Roger would talk about anything. So why doesn't he want to talk about it?
1. Someone From Before, Ma Cheri Amour

**Title**: Prologue: Blast From The Past

**Summary**:"You're not from Toontown?" Jessica asked, surprised. Roger shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Not originally, but it doesn't really matter," he replied and said no more. Jessica stared at him. Usually, Roger would talk about anything. So why doesn't he want to talk about it?

**Author's Note**: This idea has been nagging me since last year and I fought against it long enough. (Wipe that smug grin off your face, brain.) Yes, I've read that they attempted to make a prequel of WFRR on Wiki. But making a comedy out of war is like sugarcoating a bombshell that can tear off somebody's face.

This story is a 3-chapter prologue for the upcoming fanfic of Roger's origins. Well, enjoy!

Beta'd by the awesome AFictionalWriter, who makes fanfics more tolerable to read and tolerates how I murder the English language.

* * *

**Chapter 1:** Someone From Before, Ma Cheri Amour

BOOM!

"Aaand cut! That was perfect!"

Baby Herman came out of the billowing smoke, coughing. "If I get another bomb blown up in my face one more time…!"

"Jeepers, Baby Herman, it's more rousing than a cup of coffee!"A silhouette of a rabbit followed after him in the smoke. Roger broke out from the cloud, covered in ash. "It's like an exploding epiphany! A kindling kaboom! A-"

"Dangerous explosive that can burn off your fur like last time."

Roger twisted around at the voice. A damp towel suddenly blanketed his vision. Fumbling with it, he finally lifted the towel, peek-a-boo style. "Jessica! You're still here!"

His friend gave a shrug. "I decided to hang around."

The rabbit bounced into a chair and began to rub himself with a towel. He could have just shaken off the ashes but Jessica was a thoughtful girl. Sometimes he wondered why people often looked surprise by the fact. "Thanks!" he said.

Jessica leaned back on the table beside him silently, watching his rigorous rigmarole. Without thinking, she dusted off the ash on the red tuft of his hair.

"Heeeey!" Roger protested, ducking from her hand with a grin. "What am I? A dog?" He suddenly jumped on the table and crouched down on all fours. "Woof!" Rabbit ears folded into dog ears as his cottontail began to wag excitedly.

"Roger…" she said warningly. Jessica should never have told him she doesn't like laughing out loud in public. Since then, little games like this would occur between them.

Her friend made a sad puppy face. His "dog" ears drooped down like a chastised canine. He sat in his haunches with a wounded whimper. Jessica crossed her arms in front of her, making her face as stoic as possible_._ She will not break. She will _not_ break.

But for some reason, Roger always seemed to know otherwise. One ear cocked at her expression. _Crap._ Now he's not going to stop. "Woof!" His wagging tail caught his attention and he chased it around in circles.

Her lips pressed harder into a grimmer line. He was really milking the joke.

"Oof!" A crash followed as he fell off the table.

Jessica blinked and looked down –at Roger lying like a dog hoping for a belly rub.

Her friend gave her a triumphant grin as she covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking. _Roger: 7, Jessica: 3._

"You really don't quit, do you?" she said with amused resentment, tucking her hair behind her ear. Before she could chastise him further, a pink toon butterfly fluttered by, catching her attention. A shaft of sunlight brightened from a doorway before someone walked in.

A rabbit toon appeared, a doe. Her honey blonde fur gleaming in the light as she turned around as though looking for someone. She walked delicately, like a nymph on spring grass, around the busy studio. Her long rabbit wavy ears swayed behind her back as she turned her head this way and that. Finally, her eyes settled on Roger who was still lying prone on the floor.

"Roger?" her soft voice rang clearly over the din.

Said rabbit suddenly lifted himself up. Jessica saw his eyes widen in recognition… and surprise? He stood up and slowly turned around –before he ran toward her like a lost desert explorer to an oasis.

Roger tripped upon the doe's feet and she softly put a hand on her lips with a giggle. She held up her hands to pull him up but Roger stood up before her with the same reverence a commoner would bestow upon a princess.

"Cheri!" he exclaims.

Jessica raised a brow in surprise_. Did he just call her "dear" in French?_

Hearing them was hard for they talked some distance away. The doe threw her arms around Roger and squeezed him.

Momentarily, Jessica wondered what his expression was. His back was turned to her.

The doe released him with a laugh and said something Jessica couldn't hear. Roger rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly, shuffling his feet.

Jessica stared at him. _Since when did he become shy?_

She turned around to see if anyone recognized her. From a distance she can see Herman's human nanny, Poppins, watching them.

"Jessica!"

The nanny turned her back to them. Before Jessica could ponder on that, she felt someone tug her hand.

"Jessica, I want you to meet Cheri Cottontail," Roger said, a big smile on his face. "Cheri, Jessica."

Jessica did not miss the tiny frown that crossed the doe's face when she looked at her. Nonetheless, the doe held out a white gloved hand, "_Bonjour_!"

Cheri was roughly two feet tall, she made Roger's 3-foot frame looked slim and stretched. The singer stooped with one hand on her chest and took the doe's hand, shaking it. "It's a pleasure."

Roger beamed at them. "Jessica is a singer! You should have heard her sing! She's incredible!"

"That's nice," Cheri said. She tucked her arm around his. "Roger, can we have lunch together? I know a place that serves a great carrot soup."

Feeling that she's being dismissed, Jessica took her leave. "I have to go."

Roger gave his friend a confused glance, "But Jessica, I thought-"

She shook her head, "I just hanged around to make sure I'm not needed in the set again," glancing at the intimate way the doe has both of her hands around Roger's arm.

"Do you want to come with us?" the doe asked. For a moment, Jessica wondered if she only asked out of courtesy.

"Perhaps some other time," she murmured.

Cheri nodded and turned Roger away. "Okay, Jessica. _Au revoir_!"

Jessica could hear her chatting about the restaurant as they walked away. Roger looked back at Jessica and gave her a final wave before turning to hear what Cheri was saying.

The pink butterfly, followed by a blue and yellow one, fluttered after them.

_Now where did those came from?_ Jessica grabbed her purse and turned to see Poppins looking at her once again.

The nanny nodded and they both began to walk in the same direction, Jessica matching Poppins' no-nonsense stride with a graceful catwalk of her long legs. Neither of them was a patron of small talk and both were content with the companionable silence.

The silence stretched between them. To one side, a young woman clothed in a fashionable dress buttoned up to her neck, a flowery carpetbag in hand; to the other, a humanoid toon woman in a slinky red dress displaying a flash of her legs with every step.

Jessica's eyes wandered to the walls they passed by. She had always assumed he was a bachelor. Roger never mentioned he had a girl-

"Who is she?" she asked, finally breaking the soundless monotony.

Poppins whipped her head around with a frown as though she had just butchered their sacred contemplation.

"Who's who?" she asked back.

"Cheri Cottontail," Jessica answered.

Poppins raised a brow. "Then why are you asking?"

Jessica took a deep breath. Straightlaced as the nanny tends to be, there was a reason why she enjoyed the silence between them.

"You don't seem to like her so much," she pointed out.

Poppins raised the other eyebrow, both now widened with a cool air to them. "I don't 'seem', Jessica. You shouldn't make assumptions, you know."

This was the reason why a lot of people would rather leave Poppins alone. "Then how come you ignored her?" Jessica countered.

The nanny gave a displeasured sniff that always made Herman want to push her off a ledge. "Why go running to her when she'll be back tomorrow?" she asked. "When Cheri comes, Cheri goes."

Jessica looked at her blankly as they turned a corner. When Poppins isn't being snippy, she's as cryptic as Wonderland's Caterpillar.

"She'll be back tomorrow," the nanny explained, "and the next day and the next day until she'll leave."

Jessica digested this new piece of information. Since she's still new to the studio, she still has a lot to learn about them.

"What do you know about her?" she asked, inflecting her tone to "curious".

Poppins gave her a sidelong glance. "What do _you_ know about her?"

Yet another thing that Herman hated about his nanny: her verbal mind games. On the contrary, Jessica understood this kind of dance. Poppins had just inquired, "What do I know about her that you don't, so I can tell you?"

"She's an anthropomorphic French lop-eared rabbit ," she responded, remembering what she could in her 3-minute encounter with Cheri. "Bambi-like eyes tell me she came from Disney industry or generation but she has three butterflies following her everywhere so she was intentionally drawn, not born. Also, she works as a schoolteacher."

Offering a close-lipped smile, Poppins seemed quite impressed. "How did you know? Was it the light blue cardigan? The pink prairie dress?"

"She has chalk dust on her back." Of course she remembered that. She saw Roger dust off her back while they exited the studios. Ridiculous. He could have just told her so Cheri could have just-

Poppins' laugh interrupted her thoughts. "That's a good one."

The nanny smiled at her as though she's a little girl who answered her riddle correctly. "Alright. Cheri was supposed to play Maid Marian. But the moviemakers thought a fox ending up with a rabbit would be weird. She's supposed to be French but they didn't give her the accent."

The hallway was empty save for the two women. Poppins sat on the bottom of the banisters, sliding upwards without any help. Jessica matched her pace by simply climbing the stairs alongside her.

"Finally, she chose to teach in a school in Toontown," she sniffed again as her feet touched the landing. "The sweet schoolteacher," she gave a pause. "It suits her, I suppose. She has that wholesome appeal."

Jessica's eyes momentarily closed at the word "wholesome."

"She could have been great," Poppins said almost like a retort. Her mouth shut up like a trap and said no more.

Jessica looked ahead but her mind was elsewhere. What Poppins said was all interesting but _the _question wasn't answered. She finally paid attention to where they're going and saw her car. The two were close to parting ways but Poppins didn't look to be in the mood to talk anymore.

She might as well push her luck. "What else?" she asked casually as they reach her car. Jessica hoped Poppins' answering stare only looked shrewd because of her paranoia. She fished for her keys. It's not like she's asking for _that_ reason.

"Why don't you find out?" she asked back, "She will be back tomorrow anyway."

* * *

**Author's Notes**: I know I've written about Mary Poppins in my other fanfics before. But this time, I did an actual research (from Wiki, unfortunately. So take my research with a grain of salt). Here are the 3 things I've found:

1.) Mary Poppins came from a book.

2.) The author resented how Disney made Mary Poppins.

3.) Book Mary Poppins is a vain, snappish and stern nanny whose only trait that made her lovable is her magic.

Since the author hated the Disney version, I decided to portray more of Book Mary Poppins. In this universe, I'm thinking Mary had let an actress-slash-author write her story in 1934 which will become a movie in 1964.

AND YES, Roger and Jessica in here are still not a couple. For some reason, I like portraying them before they were together. Plus, in Gender Bender AUs, I kept hinting about a guy that broke Rhoda's heart before she and Jesse got together. There was supposed to be a sequel to **Across the Alternate** where Jessica found out from Rhoda about a guy she used to be crazy about and she's wondering if there was a girl out there that Roger loved first. But it wouldn't make a very big story so I chose not to.

Also, as much as I would love to give Cheri an accent I noticed that Disney characters, no matter their location, don't have accents. They want their mass audience (English speakers) to relate and understand them easily (which is understandable because they only got 90 minutes to tell the story and less than 15 minutes to make the audience love or sympathize with the hero). Lion King for example. How come only Rafiki has an African accent?

Lop-eared rabbits have droopy or "upside-down" ears, in case you don't know.


	2. A Walk in the Park

**Chapter 2**: A Walk in the Park

"So Carl said that I should jump to the lamppost." Roger jumped to said lamppost. "Swing around and here I'll be singing the line 'It's a great day out!' Then jump down again singing," he hopped back to the ground with his arms spread wide, "'C'mon and shout! It's a great day out! _na na na na_, the rest of the lyrics."

The rabbit dropped back his arms again. "But I told Carl, what if I'd swing around the lamppost and fall off in the middle of my line? Because-"

"Because half of the audience would be hoping for it and half won't be expecting it," Cheri replied seriously, a hand on her chin.

Roger thrust his yellow-gloved hands to her. "Exactly!" he cried, "Because-"

"It would be funny," the doe said, nodding in agreement.

Roger spread his arms out wide, addressing either the heavens or the lights in particular, "Finally! Someone who understands!"

Cheri tilted her head quizzically to the side, her waist-length ears swishing to the same direction. "Don't you have Herman to talk over this with, _Mon'Ami_?"

The rabbit suddenly whipped up a carrot like a cigar. He gave her a look of half-lidded apathy with a twist to his mouth. "Mah role is ter act cute and babble jargons, rabbit. Don't ya think it's enough ah don' act like ma' age for a livin'?"

Cheri stared at him.

Their intermingling laughter spread throughout the set and Poppins shook her head. She turned around to look at Jessica. The singer stared at them with an impassive expression. She turned her back and walked away without another word.

She passed by Poppins when the nanny spoke. "Didn't you want to find out?"

Jessica casted her a glance. The nanny jerked her head back and Jessica turned around to see the director of the show and his assistant strode towards the two rabbits.

"Frank!" Cheri exclaimed, seeing them.

"Miss Cottontail, I'm so glad you could join us," the director said, shaking her hand. "This is my director assistant, Clark. We've been discussing about toon timing and I was wondering if you could demonstrate?"

Jessica's cool expression hid her confusion. Roger was standing right there, why not him? But then the rest of the crew seemed to be drawing closer. Jessica sensed this happens every time Cheri was around.

Cheri nodded. "Of course," she says, walking to the set.

The crew had just finished filming "A Walk in the Park" which featured all the possible hazards a bunny nanny can run into in a park with a very unmindful baby. She walked the length of Scene 2 –a playground and slowly explored. She then walked to the middle and turned slowly around in a circle, pointing at every gag before she put out her hands in front of her like she's framing the length of the seesaw.

She nodded in satisfaction and tied a bandana over her eyes. She put her hands in her back before calling out.

"_D'accord_, Frank! I'm ready!"

Someone set off the gags switch.

Immediately, Frisbees whiz at her but Cheri suddenly dodged, ducked and dipped at every turn. The fleet of Frisbees became boomerangs which she avoided with graceful ease as though she instinctively knew where each one would hit her and where each one would come back.

Everybody watched with bated breath.

Twist. Turn. Jump. Pirouette! Her dance-dodging caused her to move into full swinging swings but she just glided and sidestepped through them with a sway of her ears. Out of the swinging swings, she casually walked backwards into a seesaw. Barely shifting the hands behind her back, one seesaw end tilted as soon as she reached the end. A rock suddenly crashed onto the tilted seesaw end and Cheri catapulted into the air, landing in a graceful arc on top of the slide.

She became a blur as she slid down and jumped up –missing the mushy mud pit waiting for her on the landing. Somersaulting in the air, she landed in front of them, her long ears acting like gliders to slow down her descent.

Silence, then...

A crashing applause ensued. Cheri took off her blindfold and responded with a ballerina's bow. Roger clapped the hardest, whooping.

Clark stared at her. "How did you do that?"

"Cheri's got an amazing timing sense!" Roger said, hopping up and down, "That was fantastic, Cheri!"

The doe laughed. "It's not just timing sense, Roger. It's also getting the estimates of the distances and figuring out the gags to be used." She turned to Clark. "It's the same sense everyone uses to know when to deliver the punch line."

"Only she uses it not to get hit!" Roger exclaimed. "As for me it's to… Bam! Pow!" he said, demonstrating explosions with his hands.

"I would have let myself slip on this baseball in the end," Cheri said to Clark, toeing the ball that Clark just noticed.

"Why?" the assistant asked.

"Because it would be funny!" the rabbits said in unison, one quoting scholarly, and the other with passion. Roger casted a glance at Cheri. She wasn't naturally funny but after studying with the masters for so long, she understood.

"It's about the build-up the timing causes," Cheri explained. "Noticed how everyone was holding their breath, wondering if I would get hit? Counting helps, if you know the length of your stride." She then went into a tirade of physics and toons physics.

The crew started to disperse, the show over. Jessica looked at Cheri, straight-back and proper then to the jumping, excitable Roger. Roger's theatrical skills were instinctive improvisations. Cheri, she observed, was more disciplined and did so with dignified grace.

In their own ways, they're both masters of comedy. Jessica felt like she's outside, looking in. She frowned, not liking-

"Cheri is one of the pioneers of actually documenting Toon Physics Application," Poppins sniffed. "Like I said, she could have been great. But she chose to teach."

"For someone who's supposed to work with children, you seem very crossed at the idea," Jessica replied, snapped out of her thoughts.

Clark thanked them and walked off with the director, leaving Roger and Cheri behind.

"Jeepers! Remember when we made a short of Lindy Hop that you showed to your students about Sense of Timing?" Roger asked.

"Of course," she replied primly, "With you, I don't have to count." Without another word, she closed her eyes and fell backward. Roger zips and suddenly appeared to catch her in the armpits.

Cheri opened her eyes and grinned up at him from his hold. "See?"

Roger grinned back as though half-carrying her was a normal everyday occurrence. "If there's a camera rollin', I would drop you right now."

"You won't," she said confidently as he helped her up. She suddenly gasped when Roger "accidentally" slipped. Cheri laughed and swatted him good-naturedly.

The very air flared making Poppins whip her head around. Jessica breezed past, making a beeline for the exit, her purse in hand. Poppins raised a brow –looks like they won't be walking together.

"HeyMaryIknowHerman'sinhistrailertakinganaptellhimIwon'tbecominglaterbye!" a blur said, racing past her.

"Jessica!"

Roger suddenly popped up in front of the singer.

"Wanna grab a snack with us?"

Jessica sighed. She had seen enough PDA for today. She opened her mouth, preparing her excuse…

**XOXOXOXOXOXO**

… And found herself inside a restaurant with Roger and Cheri.

Jessica took a deep breath. How did Roger convince her again?

She broke the ice. "So, how long have the two of you known each other?"

The two rabbits looked at each other before looking at her again. "A long time," Cheri said, shrugging. "Ever since he came to ToonTown."

"You were drawn?" Jessica asked in surprise. She never thought about asking Roger's origins.

"Actually, he's a Grawn," Cheri replied. A Grawn is a toon generation born from Drawns, they usually has the ability to grow. Unlike Drawns that don't age, most Grawns grow. But only to young to middle adulthood, where they learn to control their physical aging if the script calls for it.

Jessica looked at Roger. Drawns are transferred to Toontown, Grawns are born in there.

Roger shifted on his seat uncomfortably. "Yeah, but it doesn't really matter," he said before falling silent.

Jessica stared at the rabbit's discomfort. Roger would usually talk about almost anything.

Cheri's tinkling laugh filtered the air.

"The first time we met, I couldn't decide the way he kept looking at me," she said, "If it was his first time to see a toon or a girl!"

Roger's blue eyes widen before his yellow-gloved hand slapped on his face. Fingers dragged down to reveal his embarrassment. "It was actually a little of each," he mumbled on his palm. "Geez, I must have looked stupid to you!"

Cheri tilted her head, smiling. "Actually, it was kind of cute."

A flash of irritation coursed through Jessica; most likely stemming from Roger convincing her to eat out with the two of them.

She gave Roger a withering stare that could dry an aloe vera plant. "Roger, please don't tell me you dragged me here to be a third wheel."

Cheri's eyes widened and Roger stared at Jessica like… a rabbit caught in headlights. They both erupted into action at the same time.

"No! No! Goodness, no!" Cheri trilled, shaking her head so hard, her ears whipped back and forth.

Roger used every part of his anatomy to express his negation. Shaking his head into a blur. Crossing and uncrossing his arms like a referee. Leaning back and away from Cheri. Even his ears formed and unformed an X. All at the same time so that he looked like he was swatting a rabid moth away from him. "Jeepers, Jessica! We're just friends! F-R… uh… is it E first or I?"

Cheri giggled with a hand over her eyes. "I'm just an old friend visiting. My work gave me the opportunity to visit Maroon Studios for the week."

Something lifted off of Jessica's chest. Suddenly she figured the restaurant wasn't half bad.

"So, how long have the two of you been friends?" Cheri asked snapping her out of her reverie.

She and Roger looked at each other. "Not long," Roger said, answering for the both of them. Then he looked back at Jessica with a grin, "But long enough to know what makes the other one laugh!"

Jessica shot him a look. _Not now_.

Roger smiled at her with a halo popping on top of his head. _What?_

Her expression hardened_. I told you, I hate laughing out loud in public._

His grin became sheepish before he shrugged. _Okay, okay._

Cheri looked at them at each turn like a spectator in a tennis match. Roger thirstily drank from a glass of water.

"You know," she said. "Roger won't stop talking about you."

Roger spurted out his drink so fast; he blew a raspberry in seconds.

Jessica sipped her lemonade, unruffled. "Roger won't stop talking about anything." Being his constant companion in the set besides Herman, Jessica got used to the teasing their mismatched pair causes.

Roger looked back and forth between the two women. "Am I going to be the embarrassment bait in this?"

Two female voices replied: one with a wide-eyed smile, the other with a cool smirk.

"Yes."

And as they resumed talking, Jessica couldn't help wondering. Where did Roger come from?


	3. A Story to Tell

**Chapter 3**: A Story to Tell 

"I'll be back in a jiff- Aack!"

A crash boomed as Roger fell through the open door of his trailer.

Jessica close-lipped her smile as she also stepped inside. "Roger, you don't have to be funny all the time."

Ever since her talk with Cheri and Roger, she learned that the reason "Because it's funny!" is reason enough.

Roger rolled onto his stomach and propped his elbows on the floor. He leisurely kicked his legs as though he was in a meadow full of dandelions instead of a movie set trailer. "Who said I was being funny?" he asked looking up to her with wide, innocent eyes.

Jessica raised her brow in amusement. But she still couldn't tell when Roger was being an actual klutz.

The rabbit laughed, straightening up. "Alright, alright. I'll just get some things then we can go."

Since Jessica would always drive to the town after filming, Roger asked if he can come along to do some errands.

As he walked past the small section that served as a living room, his hand casually put a picture frame face down.

He caught her eye, opened his mouth as though to say something before shaking his head. Roger ambled into the kitchen, the refrigerator hiding him.

Jessica looked around. For an A-list toon star, the inside of the trailer was simply furnished. In fact, nothing indicated Roger used toon appliances. A human could live comfortably in his trailer.

Again, she wondered about Roger's past. She tried asking Herman about it once. The conversation went like this:

_"Herman, where did Roger come from?"_

_"Why don't you ask him?"_

_"He doesn't seem to want to talk about it."_

_"Exactly."_

Her eyes wandered to the faced-down picture frame. What would Roger be hiding? A silly picture with sentimental value to him, perhaps? She already liked him as a person; he didn't need to hide small memorabilia from her if he thinks they're worth something.

Was it a picture of Cheri? The thought made her heart drop but it must be the thrill of anticipation and burning curiosity.

She'll just take a quick look and that's it. Checking if he's still in the kitchen, she grabbed the picture and flipped it up.

Her eyes widened.

A baby toon rabbit welcomed her sight. The camera had caught the baby bunny in a middle of a gleeful gurgle. Jessica guessed this was Roger, judging by the tuft of red hair and blue eyes. His ears reached the length of his body and one of them flopped on one side of his head.

But what caught Jessica in surprise was a man and a woman in the photo. The man's long arm embraced the woman, looking at both "mother and child" with a gaze as soft as cotton. Underneath his gaze, the woman bearhugged the baby on her lap. One of Roger's ears entwined intimately with her hand.

The picture would have been a normal photo of a happy family if the "parents" were toons or if the "child" was huma-

"Jessica?"

Jessica looked up and almost dropped the picture at the sight of Roger. Her heart stopped. Time stopped. Silence stretch between them as she realized she was caught red-handed.

Roger looked stunned as he just stared at her. Then he blinked. His face turned crimson and he averted his eyes as though he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Jessica slowly put down the picture frame. He's embarrassed but…

Her heart sank when he took a large inhale and put a hand over his eyes.

Roger rarely, _rarely_ got mad. He hated feeling mad. Now, he doesn't want to be but Jessica could tell that he was.

She couldn't blame him. She saw his discomfort at putting down the picture and she still snooped.

Feeling like the scum of the earth, Jessica decided she had caused enough trouble.

"I'm going now," she murmured, turning at her heel and walking out of his door.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOX**

Roger had once been in the receiving end of Jessica's anger. It wasn't pretty. After running into a pack of wolves on the way back to the set, Jessica's cool expression disguised the shitty day she was having. Whacking them with a frying pan had helped. But it just reminded her of what she has to deal with for the rest of her toon life. Someone had tugged her hand and without thinking, Jessica swung the frying pan. _Hard._

Roger had laughed it off after waking up. But the pan _and _the wall weren't the same since, both now bearing the indentions of a rabbit.

Roger, who had seen the worst of her. The one who had witnessed her cold fury that iced the room from floor to ceiling. The one who had heard her frank sarcasm that silenced people into shame. Roger who had felt the cold air about her that kept most people away.

Roger who made her laugh; and, suddenly, she could see what he saw: she was bigger than all of her problems. That they're not so bad. That she can handle them. She knew all of those things a long time ago. But through Roger's eyes was a difference: there was a brightness that she never saw. There was hope.

Now Roger's the one mad at her.

And she couldn't handle it the way he did for her.

Jessica stifled a yawn and walked to the studio. She couldn't believe she couldn't sleep because Roger might still be mad at her. Wait, she could. Roger…

Her hand paused at reaching the doorknob as the realization hit her.

…mattered.

The door suddenly opened and Roger froze in midstep, looking at her.

Both humanoid toon woman and anthropomorphic rabbit gawked at each other.

Jessica tore her eyes away, shamefaced while Roger suddenly found the marble floor fascinating, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

They stood for what seemed like a whole minute, their gazes meeting and repelling when they realized the other was looking.

"Roger, I'm sorry," Jessica finally said.

Roger shook his head fervently. "Don't be silly, Jessica. I was the one being stupid," he studied his floppy feet. "I should have told you not to look at that picture."

To the outsiders, they must have looked strange. A glamorous toon woman who could advertise a Mustang on the spot, having a heartfelt talk with a furry floppy-eared clown.

"But I knew you didn't want me to look," Jessica said. Not for the first time, she wished her dress could allow her to crouch down. But that would only result in Roger backing away out of respect.

Roger finally looked at her. "Do you have the time?"

Curious, Jessica nodded. Roger led her in the direction of where his trailer was parked.

"Herman said it's time I told you about where I came from. He said you've been asking."

Jessica flinched internally at those words. _That old brat!_

Roger looked at her, sensing her reaction. "It's okay; I knew you'd be curious, after all." He laughed out loud in reminiscence. "Herman was worse. When I wouldn't tell him, I ended up with a baby ninja snooping around my trailer. At two in the morning."

He suddenly became very interested in the asphalt. "It's just that, it's too complicated to be talked over in a minute. It causes a lot of questions to be asked."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Jessica replied, her heart lighter but still weighed down by lingering guilt.

"I want to. We've known each other for a while now," Roger smiled at her and Jessica felt it. The undertone on anything Roger-related: a familiar strong bond that tugged on her securely, a warm presence that lingered even after they parted ways.

They reached the trailer and Roger opened the door. He had her settle down on the sofa before handing her the picture frame again.

Jessica smiled at it as Roger went off to the kitchen. Roger looked awfully damn cute as a baby rabbit.

When she looked up, Roger had returned with a can of coke and carrot juice and a photo album.

He hopped up beside her and they both looked at the picture in the frame: a happy family of a human couple and an anthropomorph baby bunny.

"Roger? Who are they?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Jessica, meet my Ma and Pa."

**XOXOXOXOX**

It was a dark, stormy night.

John C. Rabbit closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of wet earth seeping into the living room. He settled comfortably in the sofa, looking over his wife. Diane looked like a pile of sheets wrapped loosely in a bundle. The only reason that she couldn't be mistaken for laundry was the ginger hair glinting against the light.

He smiled sadly at her. He knew she wasn't sleeping. The cards in his hands made a comforting whirring as he cut and flipped them. His mind was too distracted for books tonight. He busied his hands to relieve his restless mind. His thumb ran over their edges; letting the cards slip and smack against each other in a whirring sound.

She's getting better now. The doctor's words had been like a blow to her. _I'm sorry… Your eggs… other couples… Infertile… _For the past few days, she had been hiding behind a smile –the kind of smile you forced when you banged your thumb with a hammer.

People have many metaphors for life. Life is a wheel, they say –sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. But it's like saying you have no control over the situation, like it's some kind of weather. They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life gives you nothing, like what it's doing to his wife right now? He'd try to comfort her when he'd caught her glancing forlornly at herself. But she'd just say she was worried about her waistline. Right.

John looked around at the sound of a creak outside. He rolled his eyes. It's probably Macowsky leaving a basket of carrots as a joke. Again. Yeah, not a lot of people have Rabbit as their surnames but he wished his neighbour would have better things to do.

But who would be out in the rain at this time of night?

He spread the cards in 8 lines for Solitaire and picked out the cards for the other rows of four. Looks like he got dealt with a bad hand.

The irony.

He flipped a card face up and blinks. A wide smile and a jester cap greeted him. Huh. He forgot to separate the joker.

"John, I hear something."

Diane sat ramrod straight on the other end of the sofa.

"It's probably Mike being a dolt again."

"Shhhh!"

This time, John fell silent. Rain splashed and tip-tapped, crickets chirped, and someone …crying?

John bolted up straight. His stomach dropped to his feet. It sounded like a baby crying. Narrowing his eyes, he strode to the door. Bloody Mike and his jokes. He's gone too far.

He looked first through the peephole. The porch was deserted. He took a deep breath and calmly stored the energy he's going to yell… or swing at the immaturity. With a look to his wife, he opened the door.

No one. Darkness as far as the porchlight can't reach.

"John, look!"

A basket lay on the dusty porch floor. Cautiously, they both peeped inside. The wailing was coming from inside. Diane tugged down the blankets and gasped.

Blue eyes peeped at them, so surprised, it stopped crying. Its ears restlessly waved off the blankets weighing them down.

"It's a…"

Overcoming the shock of their presence, its lips trembled and he began to bawl again.

"Oh shh! Hush!" Diane whispered, wounding her arms around the bundle.

John looked at it, his mouth hanging. He had never seen one up close, they looked so… flat in pictures.

"Oh dear, someone must have thought we're actual rabbits!" Diane said, and then she laughed. A sweet uplifting sound that had caught his ears before she had caught his eye. Her eyes moistened but her old spark was back as she rocked the baby.

John swallowed. Carefully, he touched its ear –velvety to the touch even if they're supposed to be of ink and paint. It also felt cold. He tucked it inside the blankets and felt warmer fur inside.

"The baby's a …"

He looked at its face again as it quieted down, lulled to sleep. He looked at his wife, glowing again as though she was given the most unexpectedly best gift in the world.

And John Cooper Rabbit decided he didn't give a damn.

"The baby's staying with us."

* * *

**Author's Notes**: What. Have. I. Done? I should never have read Wikipedia and Wikia's entries on WFRR. Ever since I've read the part of them to do a prequel, my mind have been trying to bridge that gap that their estimated gazillion dollar budget for the movie couldn't cross. My friends, this is just the prologue. Roger's story is coming.


End file.
